


Death in the Family

by CureDigiQueen



Series: The Perfect Timeline (Ducktales) [3]
Category: DuckTales (Cartoon 2017)
Genre: Canonical Character Death, Gen, He's not gone forever, I mean. It's Duckworth
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-09-29
Updated: 2020-09-29
Packaged: 2021-03-08 00:47:32
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,537
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26716990
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/CureDigiQueen/pseuds/CureDigiQueen
Summary: Duckworth's death was sudden and tragic.Launchpad's entrance into their lives was sudden, and anything but tragic.
Series: The Perfect Timeline (Ducktales) [3]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1411315
Comments: 4
Kudos: 28





	Death in the Family

**Author's Note:**

> Haha, so it's been a year since I uploaded anything. I haven't stopped writing per se, but there's a difference between writing down drabbles when inspiration strikes, and well. Writing something complete, and then getting around to publish it. Especially between school and... whatever this year is. Thanks to thenotso_ultiwrit for motivating me to finish a piece. (Making me realize it has been a year since I've published *anything*). The start of this has probably been sitting in my docs forever. Oops.

Duckworth’s death was sudden and tragic.

One night he was fine, if a bit tired, but that wasn’t unusual. While he had fought tooth and nail against each new duty that Mrs. Beakley took over as he aged, he was definitely getting on in his years. But retirement was out of the question. This was Duckworth’s home, and if he objected to Beakley infringing on his work, the idea of retiring altogether, even if he still lived here, would have sent him into a rage.

But that night he was fine, just a bit tired. 

“That should be all for today Duckworth, see you in the morning,”

“Very good sir,”

But the next morning Scrooge went without his morning tea, the family all gathered for breakfast, but there wasn’t anything to eat. Scrooge of course went looking for him, assuming kidnapping, or perhaps a preoccupation with a rouge beast.

Not still asleep in bed.

Not not asleep at all.

Scrooge left the room stunned and shaky, and made his way to the dining room, where hungry kids were being fed hastily scrambled eggs.

“Beakley… you’ll be handling cooking duties alone from now on if you don’t mind,”

No one replied for a long moment.

“Of… course Mr. McDuck… but….”

The kids stopped eating one by one and began to watch their Uncle, unfamiliarly shaky and uncertain, carefully.

“What happened to Duckworth,” Della asked finally, already knowing the answer, “Is…”

“He seems…” Scrooge choked on his words, thick in his throat, “....he seems to have passed away last night,”

“Duckworth’s dead,” Donald blurted out in shock, standing up, knocking over a glass, where it shattered on the floor. Della tugged on Donald's arm, and he sat back down, mumbling an apology.

“Passed away in his sleep I suppose,” Scrooge continued.

Donald left the shattered glass on the floor.

“Should… should I call the funeral home,” Mrs. Beakley asked, a bit shocked, but managing.

Scrooge only managed a nod.

“Duckworth’s dead?” Webby asked innocently, never one to mince words.  
“That’s right Webby darlin,” Scrooge said, putting a comforting hand on her head.

“Oh,” Huey managed to say, but just stared at his breakfast, processing.

Louie was the first to start crying, finding his way to his mom’s arms. Della began to hum softly but stopped when her voice betrayed her, and all she could do was bite her beak, bite back the tears.

Donald stood up to go comfort Huey and Dewey and kneeled down between their chairs. Dewey immediately took the opportunity to latch onto his uncle, and Donald wrapped a comforting arm around him and put his other hand on Huey’s shoulder.

Huey began to sob and threw his arms around Donald.

Webby was the last to begin crying. Everyone else's tears started her own, and before she knew it she was bawling into her Uncle Scrooge’s coat. 

Beakley swept the glass up without saying a word.

  
  


Beakley and Duckworth had never gotten along. That was only natural with the way Beakley had encroached on Duckworth’s duty’s, his purpose in life, and his pompous attitude hadn’t exactly endeared him to her either. That isn’t to say she was happy he was gone. For all their bickering, they were members of the same household. They all bickered to a certain extent.

She hadn’t been expecting him to pass, per se. It was sudden and it had caught her off guard. She was more surprised than she expected to be. But, less surprised then she should be. In the back of her mind, for the past couple years, she had known that Duckworth was reaching the end of his life, that it was likely he would die within the next few years. She didn’t expect it today. She hadn’t quite thought out the consequences. 

She wondered if Duckworth had.

Duckworth did in fact have a will. It was maybe a couple of decades old, a bit odd for someone who was otherwise so meticulous. But it had been added to, rather recently. It was short and brief. It did not take long to go through it.

He didn’t mind what his family did to his stuff. He had no family really, besides the people of the household he had dutifully served for decades, and he knew that they weren’t going to tear themselves apart over his belongings.

His money was to be donated to the same, ancient school for butlers he had attended, all those years ago.

“You live in a mansion, none of you need it,” he had written, wryly.

A tea set to Webby. 

“in memory of our magnificent tea parties,”

Huey got books, from old classics to 

“they may be difficult to read now, but you’ll learn eventually,”

To Dewey an old record player.

“Use only with adult supervision, you don’t want to break it,”

What little precious metals he had owned, and an old watch to Louie.

“You’d appreciate my shiny belongings,”

To Donald, an old compass, and a model boat.

And to Della, a set of knives, and a model plane.

“I am returning these model’s to you, but know that I treasured them,”

Scrooge an order to behave himself, and an old quilt, with no further elaboration.

And to Beakley, an order to keep the house spotless.

“I suppose you’ll do as a replacement, it’s your house now,”

They left his room otherwise uncleaned.

They had enough rooms as it was.

The one duty of Duckworth’s that Mrs.Beakley was unable to take over was the chauffeur. She simply refused to be away from the house for that long during the day, both for Webby’s sake, and for the house's sake… four children and two unreasonably unlucky adults made for a lot of cleaning, and now that Duckworth was gone, it was more than ever.

So Scrooge looked for a driver.

Scrooge honestly didn’t look long. His driver literally crashed into him. 

Launchpad McQuack, everybody’s self-proclaimed friend, had crashed into him, as he drove into work, helped him escape from the beagle boys, scared of the beagle boys with his erratic driving, and had not once lost his composure, except to apologize for the trouble he had caused.

Sure his driving was, turbulent to say the least, but when you were the Richest Duck in the World, you needed someone who wasn’t afraid to be unconventional. You needed someone who wasn’t afraid to follow you into the unknown. Someone who everyone else would be afraid to follow.

Launchpad just so happened to be looking for a job.

And Scrooge just happened to be hiring. There was only one tiny detail that needed attention?”

“Say lad, are you good with kids?”  
“With kids?” Launchpad asked, “Sure am. They’re just small friends.”

“Good, because I’ve got 3 nephews, great nephews rather, and a great niece who you’d be driving around as well,”  
“They sound fun, I’d love to meet them,”

A few days later, after a quick background check (you could never be too careful), a meeting with Beakley, who was more bemused than anything, Launchpad had been brought to McDuck manor, and the family had been gathered.

Almost.

“Where’s Donald and Della?” Scrooge asked.

“Some sort of “Duck Emergency”, I didn’t ask,” Beakley replied.

“Heya kids, I’m Launchpad,”  
“Your name is Launchpad?” Dewey said, immediately bounding over to meet the stranger, his brothers and Webby standing back a little anxiously.

“Yep, pretty cool, huh” Launchpad said with pride.

“Well mine’s Dewey, short for Dewford Deuteronomy,” Dewey announced, standing as tall as he could, which at all of 5 (nearly 6) years old, was not all that tall.

“Huh, cool.”

“Mom says Uncle Donald suggested Dingus for my middle name, but she wouldn’t go with it,”

“Dingus huh,” Launchpad mused, “Well it’s an interesting name,”  
“Mom almost named me Turbo, but Uncle Donald apparently talked her out of it. She still sometimes calls me Turbo. I wish my name was Turbo. It’s even cooler than Launchpad, no offense,”

“Dewey’s a cool name,” Launchpad argued, “You can do Dewey things….”  
“I can Dewey things with my name!” Dewey cried.

“What?” Louie asked blankly.

“Dewey you need me to explain?”

“Are you just replacing words with Dewey?” Huey asked

“Oh, that’s cool. You name Dewey sounds like the word Do,” Launchpad said.  
“Don’t encourage him,” Huey groaned.

“Didn’t you give him the idea,” Louie pointed out.

“Oh look, another child,” Beakley said.

“I think it’s Dewlightful,” Webby chimed in, almost too proudly.  
“Not you too Webby,” Louie whined.

“Hi, I’m Webby, nice to meet you Launchpad!”

“Nice to meet you too!”

“So you’re going to be our new chauffeur?” Webby asked. “Where did you come from? How long have you been driving? What kind of music do you like to listen to?”

“Webby, you have to give him a chance to answer?” Louie   
“Uh, I guess I like the Darkwing Duck theme song? What else did you ask?”

“Darkwing Duck?” The children asked.

"You haven't heard about Darkwing Duck, it's the greatest tv show to ever grace Duckney Channel," Launchpad asked, "I've got all the tapes,"

“I’d say he’s going to be just fine,” Scrooge said.

Launchpad's inclusion in their life was sudden, but anything but tragic.

**Author's Note:**

> So, it was supposed to end with Donald and Della getting home from whatever suspicious thing they were at, and Launchpad revealing he's a pilot to Della's suspicion (and that's he's a notorious crasher to Donald's suspicion). But it wasn't quite working. I might add another chapter about Launchpad meeting the twins. Or edit the ending of this. We'll see.


End file.
